How to Find Someone or Check Out Their Background

1 - I can do better 2 - Jury's out 3 - Pretty darn good 4 - Splendiferous 5 - Awesometastic by 18 people | Log in to rate

Ranked #788 in How-To, #8,592 overall

Looking for someone?

Search for free and as a last resort pay to find someone. I have done this many many times--mostly the free searches. I was able to find my biological father's other children. By posting a message on Genealogy.com of all places and I got a response. I was not able to find him as he has been dead since 1984. On February 17, 2009 I got a Facebook friend request from my sister's 1/2 sister for whom I had been searching for years! She found the message I left on Genealogy.com! Very exciting for us. Facebook is a good place to start your search. You can search by name & remember to search the friends of people who might know them too.

Books can help~ I did purchase the book, When In Doubt Check Him Out, back in the 90's and it helped me get copies records that are valuable to me! (The link to it is below under the heading books- I highly recommend it). I was able to get a copy of my biological father's death certificate. I also got a copy of a friend's driving record--(I wanted to see if he had any DUI's or other offenses) This was very helpful. Each only cost me a small amount of money...

Searching for classmates~ I am also on my reunion committe and I help finding missing classmates. I am pretty good at it too. I find most of them quite easily without paying a cent!!

Just Love to Research & Investigate~ I have always loved mysteries and dective stories and now I do it for myself. There are places online that charge as well. It all depends on how much time you want to invest in searching for free vs. paying someone to do it for you.

I hope you find these resources useful.

Good Luck!

Looking for an ex, lost friend, classmate, a co-worker, or trying to find information about someone you're dating? Keep reading.

Let's get started 

and easier than you might think!

As with most things we do you will need a list!

Before you begin your search have some basics ready. Some you may not have available but do your best to have as many as possible.

* Birth name (first and last)
* Nick name
* Names of schools attended (High school & College)
* address (or at least the city & state)
* Date of birth (at least an idea of the year)
* Relatives names
* Spouses name
* Maiden & Married name (if applicable)
* Previous & current employers

The search is on. . .  

Once you know what sites to search, which ones are free and which ones charge a fee then you're ready to go!

Below are sites to search for FREE

ZabaSearch.com 

FREE search

This is by far one of the best sites to search for someone. It is very comprehensive and often startles people when they search their own name. Try it for yourself. You will be quite shocked!

ZabaSearch insists that what information they provide is public record... Get ready to be surprised here!!!
click here to get to ZabaSearch.com

Peoplefinders.com 

FREE Search

This is a great service. PeopleFinders' massive people search database retrieves billions of hard-to-find public records, cross-checked for accuracy, hard-to-find addresses, missing phone numbers and lost email for the person you are searching for. Always free to search.


People Finders

Whitepages.com 

FREE Search

Search Whitepages

I have used whitepages.com many many times to help me find lost classmates. it is great! Easy to use and a reliable resource.

whitepages.com/

Switchboard.com 

FREE Search

Powered by Inteluis

I have also used this site many time in searching for
classmates. Search white pages, public records, get maps &
even reverse phone number look up.

switchboard.com

FREE People Search 

This search is truly FREE.
Check it out today!

People & Phone Number Search

Pipl.com 

FREE Search

From the Pipl.com site:

There are various reasons why you might need to search for people, you may need to find a lost relative, an old flame, a classmate or a business contact - but if you are using a search engine such as Google or Yahoo to search for people, you have probably realized by now that it might work in some cases but in most cases it won't.

How come the best search engines fail so miserably when it comes to people search? The answer lies in a little known but very important part of the web called "the deep web".

Also known as "invisible web", the term "deep web" refers to a vast repository of underlying content, such as documents in online databases that general-purpose web crawlers cannot reach. The deep web content is estimated at 500 times that of the surface web, yet has remained mostly untapped due to the limitations of traditional search engines.

Since most personal profiles, public records and other people-related documents are stored in databases and not on static web pages, most of the higher-quality information about people is simply "invisible" to a regular search engine.

Pipl's query-engine helps you find deep web pages that cannot be found on regular search engines.

Unlike a typical search-engine, Pipl is designed to retrieve information from the deep web, our robots are set to interact with searchable databases and extract facts, contact details and other relevant information from personal profiles, member directories, scientific publications, court records and numerous other deep-web sources.

Pipl is not just about finding more results; we are using advanced language-analysis and ranking algorithms to bring you the most relevant bits of information about a person in a single, easy-to-read results page.

Not convinced yet? try searching for people and you'll see the difference.

pipl.com

What is the "Deep Web" Anyway? 

The deep Web (also called Deepnet, the invisible Web, dark Web or the hidden Web) refers to World Wide Web content that is not part of the surface Web, which is indexed by standard search engines.

Mike Bergman, credited with coining the phrase, has said that searching on the Internet today can be compared to dragging a net across the surface of the ocean; a great deal may be caught in the net, but there is a wealth of information that is deep and therefore missed. Most of the Web's information is buried far down on dynamically generated sites, and standard search engines do not find it. Traditional search engines cannot "see" or retrieve content in the deep Web ? those pages do not exist until they are created dynamically as the result of a specific search. The deep Web is several orders of magnitude larger than the surface Web.

PeekYou.com 

FREE Search

This search tool is provided by Google.

It claims to be the new online white pages. You can register yourself so others can find you too. It searches for online profiles of itself and other sites.

peekyou.com/

Spock.com 

FREE Search

Spock.com is a beta free search.

It is still a good way to find someone--
especially if they have an online presence.

spock.com/

Another Great Source...

Search graduate directories.

You can register yourself for FREE. You may have to pay a "upgrade" fee to find out more details or to contact the person directly via email. But, if you find who you are looking for it is well worth the fee. I have used these many times in my online searching.

Reunion.com 

Reunion.com has over 28 million registered users and everyday, we help people find family members, classmates, forgotten friends, lost loves, old business contacts & so forth!


Classmates.com 

There are over 40 million friends already on Classmates.com. Classmates is for people who are looking to find and reconnect with old friends, get reunion updates and partake in lively message boards.


Don't forget the Big Search Engines

You may be shocked at what your search reveals. Social bookmarking, posts on sites, images, profiles & more! Go ahead... search your own name and see what comes up!

Google.com 

FREE Search

Of course we can not forget the obvious search engine to find someone. Be sure to search both the web and images. You will be surprised what you might find.

Google.com

Yahoo.com 

FREE Search

Yahoo is another great source to search. Be sure to search both the web and images here too.

Yahoo.com

Live.com 

Operated by Microsoft

Microsoft's Windows Live search engine for Web content, images, news, and local information. This is a great tool for searching.(also has great tools for webmasters aka lensmasters...)

Live.com

Below are some great companies to search

for a small fee...

InfoRegistry.com 

InfoRegistry.com

Perform background checks, criminal records searches,
reverse phone look ups and a variety of other public data.

Get Instant Access to Court Records Nationwide!

Reverse Phone Detective 

Find out the owner of any cell phone or unlisted number.

Results include name, current address, carrier, and location details when available. Your search is 100% confidential.

Click Here to search any phone number!

Have you ever searched for someone online? 

Loading poll. Please Wait...

Books to help with your search 

These will help your search!

When In Doubt Check Him Out: A Woman's Survival Guide For The '90s

Avg. Customer Rating: Amazon Rating

Amazon Price: (as of 01/02/2010) Buy Now
List Price: $19.95
Used Price: $0.01

Find Me: How Psychic Detectives from Around the World Have Banded Together to Find Missing People

Avg. Customer Rating: Amazon Rating

Amazon Price: $13.22 (as of 01/02/2010) Buy Now
List Price: $16.95
Used Price: $6.30

How to Find Friends Lost Family and Missing Persons

Avg. Customer Rating: Amazon Rating

Amazon Price: (as of 01/02/2010) Buy Now
List Price: $24.95
Used Price: $6.60

How to Find People With Information from Public Records

Avg. Customer Rating: Amazon Rating

Amazon Price: (as of 01/02/2010) Buy Now
List Price: $19.87
Used Price: $10.00

How to Find Missing Persons. (book reviews): An article from: Security Management

Avg. Customer Rating: Amazon Rating

Amazon Price: $5.95 (as of 01/02/2010) Buy Now
List Price: $5.95
Used Price:

More Books on Searching Public Records 

The Manual to Online Public Records: The Researcher's Tool to Online Resources of Public Records and Public Information (Public Records Online)

Avg. Customer Rating: Amazon Rating

Amazon Price: $14.93 (as of 01/02/2010) Buy Now
List Price: $21.95
Used Price: $11.58

The Public Record Research Tips Book: Insider Information for Effective Public Record Research

Avg. Customer Rating: Amazon Rating

Amazon Price: $13.57 (as of 01/02/2010) Buy Now
List Price: $19.95
Used Price: $6.97

Public Records Online, 6th Edition: The Master Guide to Private & Goverment Online Sources of Public Records

Avg. Customer Rating: Amazon Rating

Amazon Price: (as of 01/02/2010) Buy Now
List Price: $21.95
Used Price: $5.52

Examining Public Records - Background Investigations Made Easy for the General Public

Avg. Customer Rating: Amazon Rating

Amazon Price: $19.95 (as of 01/02/2010) Buy Now
List Price: $19.95
Used Price:

Public Records Stuff... 

Loading Fetching new data from eBay now... please stand by
eBay

So, what do you think? Did this information help you? 

submit

Here are some of my lens that you might also find interesting... 

Please visit my bio page and check out all of my squidoo lenses... 

Just click on the picture below

Free & Paid People Search News 

Be careful what you post about yourself online...others you don't want to see just might!

Why Twitter Will Endure
As someone who was oversubscribed on Facebook, overwhelmed by the computer-generated RSS feeds of news that came flying at me, and swamped by incoming ...
Lack of BC food labelling laws leaves restaurant diners in peril
?I challenge people to go through the Milestones, Earls and Joey nutritional information lists and find something with less fat than a Big Mac,? The Sun's ...
Seeking Profit in Open-Source Search Software
It's also a very delicate type of technology since companies often rely on corporate search to find documents related to litigation. ...
Fans get creative to snare BCS tickets
But according to Christian Anderson of Fansnap.com, a search engine that pulls together feeds from more than 50 Web sites across the Internet, ...

Explore related pages

Create a Lens!